Community cohesion should be at the heart of local government services rather than just an "add-on", a minister has said.
Launching new guidance for councils, communities minister Shahid Malik said that inclusive communities helped to improve mental and physical health as well as reduce crime.
The government said new figures suggested that increasing 'cohesion' - which includes factors such as "sense of community" and "respect for diversity" - by one per cent across the country could save up to £530m in reduced crime.
The guidance suggest that higher levels of social integration can lead to the community sharing the same values and goals, including keeping the neighbourhood safe and free from crime.
Malik said: "The vast majority of people are happy with the community they live in, and believe that different groups get on well together in their area.
"But we know that challenges to cohesion do exist and there are those who try to undermine our commonality and our shared values.
"We, therefore, need to tackle head-on the sense of unfairness and disaffection that is alienating parts of our community. Promoting cohesion should never be an optional extra."
The guidance also said figures showed that crime was lower in areas which, while disadvantaged, have high levels of social cohesion.
Communities secretary John Denham recently announced that working-class areas would be targeted by the government to counter far-right extremism.
The government wants councils to consider cohesion in all aspects of their work including housing, education, healthcare and planning.
Several councils were commended for their efforts, including Buckinghamshire which was praised for providing cohesion training for new staff as part of their induction.
Article Comments
According to Ruth Kelly, migrants must learn English language to integrate. Learning English language is about as useful as learning Arabic, Urdu and other community languages. The British Establishment and society has systematically failed to understand the causes of migration, global terrorism and social and emotional, economic segregation. Muslims suffer different forms of discrimination which reduce their employment opportunities and affect their educational achievements. This can give rise to hopelessness and could undermine Muslims' sense of belongingness. Islamophobia is a growing reality of racism around the world. The only way to stop it is by respecting the religious diversity. Communities are more divided than ever. The Government presses ahead with flawed policies and anti-terrorist legislation that created further resentment, alienation and criminalization. A dramatic surge of racist and religiously motivated violence followed the 7/7, London and Glasgow bombing. Muslim communities are angry at plans to 'spy' on Muslim students at universities. The proposal is an act of racism. Universities are not the problem. Just because some of the 7/7 bombers were graduates, does not mean they formed their ideas in a university. It is the western society which is creating extreme Muslims all around the world. Young Muslims are becoming more separated from society than their parents who were not well versed in English while young Muslim generation is notoriously monolinguals. Schools do not encourage and teach Arabic, Urdu and other community languages. They are even discouraged to speak mother tongues at home. They only learn British History not their own history. The British society was and still reluctant to open up its sense of citizenship to all those that have come to live here. Integration is a two-way process. Many Muslims acknowledge that they need to do more to engage with wider society. At the same time British and European politicians must make stronger efforts to promote meaningful intercultural dialogue and tackle racism, discrimination and marginalization more effectively.The British establishment is wrong in thinking that Imams are to blame for extremism. Imams are not solution to the problem for extremism. Extremism is nothing to do with Imams. Extremism is not created from abroad, it is coming from within. Britain fails to help Muslim communities feel part of British society. Race trouble is being predicted by the Daily Express, because of an ethnic boom in UK major cities. Muslim communities need imams for the solutions of their needs and demands in their own native languages. Muslim parents would like to see their children well versed in Standard English and to go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. The fact is that majority of Muslim children leave schools with low grades because monolingual teachers are not capable to teach Standard English to bilingual Muslim children. A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/she does not want to become notoriously monolingual Brit. Iftikhar Ahmad
6th Aug 2009 at 7:01 pm by Iftikhar
